Singer Songwriters

"Don't forget who you are even though you are hurt You are caught in a wire and soon it will burst"

"The underdogs are my lions The silent ones are my choir The women will be my soldiers With the weight of life on their shoulders"

"If I am left with a rose in my hand, let it die It's the beauty in forgotten love And I don't care if you don't understand why I cry It's the beauty in forgotten love"

"I think once in a while we all need something to remind us of the good that exists in the world. And why we exist. Right now the world is going through a lot, together, but we are also isolated. You try to listen to the world when making music. And I felt like the world needed a little love right now."

"It's very hard for me. I don't see the meaning in numbers. I don't have the possibility to understand what they mean in terms of success. I don't get a rush out of them – I wish I did. It's a very hard question for me to answer without seeming ungrateful because I am very honoured that people have let 'Runaway' into their hearts."

"And I was running far away Would I run off the world someday? Nobody knows, nobody knows And I was dancing in the rain I felt alive and I can't complain But now take me home Take me home where I belong I can't take it anymore"

"Yes, music for me is not about my own pain, relationships, or breakups, I write about the world around me. I want the music to be a nature force big like a mountain, ocean, or hurricane. Music for me is really big and the closest thing I've experienced to something divine. I want people to be reminded of their inner warrior. We're in an important time, fighting for nature and what you believe in. I think we're hungry for more. I write pop music and it's very intellectual and full of emotion. I have many different styles within pop in my songs. Every song has a clear identity and asks for its own colour, its own mood. I'm really missing meaning in pop music and I have been for the last 20 years. I miss the force that we need and I believe that it's up to individuals. We don't have a machine to clear the water of plastic, we have to do it by hand. It's up to us, the people. The true power lies within the people it always has but somehow throughout history, the rich leaders have made it seem like power lies with one person. But that's so old-fashioned, we're getting out of that now, the power lies with the people. I really want to remind people of the power they have that they may have forgotten about."

"Well, I didn't have a computer in my house before six years ago. But I still got vinyl LPs and had an LP player, but I don't have iTunes or Spotify or Tidal or WiMP or anything. It's just because it just seems very confusing, and complicated. I've been a lot more into Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, which was a bit complicated for me to understand the language of each social media because they all talk in different ways. It's a nice way for me to tell people I appreciate them, which I forget to do sometimes. Because I want people to know I wouldn't be here without... people, right?"

"I feel like a city is strange when there is no source of escape. You need mountains, ocean, or forest. My parents have a sailboat and love being in the ocean. I am a forest person. I like to climb trees, to have things over me, to be isolated and hidden."

"A gift, a curse, they track and hurt Say can you dream, in nightmare seems? A million voices, silent dreams Where hope is left so incomplete"

"I wrote "Runaway" when I was 11 years old. It's quite funny because the older I got, the more it made sense to me. It touched my heart, and now it reminds me of things that happened after I wrote it. It was kind of like a gift to myself. It's weird because my inspiration for the lyrics to "Runaway" came out of nowhere. A few years later, something happened to me (well, the whole of Norway actually), and then the lyrics made so much sense to me. I sat in my house on the usual piano I always write on and it look like an hour, I think. I remember it was completely quiet, it was grey outside. Not light, not dark, not dry, not wet, not cold, not warm – it was kind of one of those out-of-place kind of days. It was kind of like time was standing still."

"My fans see me as an angel, but I'm not an angel. I'm just a normal person from Norway who writes music. They expect from me what I expect from them. They would be surprised if I was ever mean or inappropriate, but I want to be a good role model. You become that immediately when you get fans."

"Broken me and broken them And you are broken too Open ears, their eyes are open Makes me call for you"

"Let her save the world, she is just a girl Let him save them all, he is just a boy Let her save the world, she is just a girl Let him save them all, he is just a boy"

"Being a mother is not an easy job. So those who combine both roles deserve a special medal."

"I wrote this song to celebrate mothers all over the globe who pray tirelessly for the growth and success of their children."

"Brands need to start looking at gospel artists to represent and promote their brand. Seriously, you have a full page when it comes to gospel singers."

"2020 is going to be massive by the grace of God. I am working on something big already and I just can’t wait to let it out for the world to see."

"Gospel music is not enjoying much hype as most Nigerians prefer to listen to secular music. This could be really painful for selected singers who chose this niche but I am always motivated to change the phase of every situation I find myself and I will be doing everything possible by the grace of God to elevate the gospel music niche in Nigeria"

"I am aiming for the sky, the best"

"I was not born with a silver spoon. Growing up for me was really tough. There were a lot I needed that I couldn’t get, even with having my both parent though they tried at least to put a meal on the table"

"Many a time, I try to put myself in the shoes of others living around us who can’t have one square meal a day and I will always end up in tears of not being able to do something to help their situation."

"URHUESE ” is a song of thanksgiving to God for His Goodness, Blessings and faithfulness."

"Urhuese is a word in Edo language that means ‘thank you’ and ‘it’s an album of gratitude to God for his blessings, goodness and faithfulness"

"Urhuese is a song of thanksgiving to God Almighty for His love and kindness towards mankind and one of the purposes of this song is to stimulate the heart of gratitude in individuals across the Globe. My expectation is that everyone that comes in contact with Urhuese will cultivate a heart of gratitude because being thankful is not a gift but an attitude that can be cultivated."

"It’s like the old and the new me merged together. Sound-wise, it’s probably what people want to hear from me."

"Why are people always scared to see concepts from multiple angles? Your view may not be the only view."

"Self-improvement is definitely my biggest flex."

""He was my mentor, one of my best friends. We co-worked together. And actually, at some point, it became less about music and more about just friendship. He was like my small daddy kind of. And when I started getting into trouble in the industry, he was like my bailout and my defender.”"

"While I was growing up, every young person in Soweto knew that the system was wrong… the system was incorrect, that situation put us in a position of not sitting down and expecting things to change, we had to fought so had to be able to acquire quality education."

"We must nurture and empower our young girls. .. we can lift them up through education. They are the future. Without equal access to education for girls, Africa will not become the power house of the world. We need girls in school not as brides. ’’"

"It is what we make of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another. Yvonne, you are a testament to my belief. Your generosity has benefited untold numbers of families and orphans facing the challenges of AIDS, terminal illness, abuse, poverty and illiteracy."

"Africa has so many young people, but has this young people being given the tools to fend for themselves? is there a conducive platform for them to thrive? it is not yet ‘uhuru’ we must make sure that our children can see the light at the end of the tunnel."

"One day, you will tell your story of how you overcame what you went through and it will be someone else's survival guide."

"When you are an artist you are telling your story and other people stories…As a South African, when I had the platform to sing, I took it as a platform to tell my story, to inspire those who were fighting for equal right and freedom."

"Africa is not the dark continent, Africa is a great continent, Africa is not a dying continent, Africa is a beautiful continent."

"Growing up in Soweto, I never thought I’d one day wear a red robe, let alone from a wonderful institution such as Rhodes University"

"I think believing in myself and knowing what I wanted. From day one, when Phil Hollis came to me and said he wanted to make me a superstar, I knew I wanted to do things my way. And even after 33 years, I still do it my way. I never allowed anybody to take me for granted. I thought, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be: I’m not going to sleep with any man to be a superstar, I’m not going to sell myself cheap, I’m not going to allow anybody to overrun me. If I didn’t know things, if there was a contract I wasn’t sure about, I took it to a lawyer to explain it to me, but I always made the decision. I’ve always been this very assertive girl"

"We need to make sure that we pave the way for our children and those that are coming after us because those who came before us fought so hard for Africa, I don’t think we are there yet, Africa must change for good."

"My late mother was my everything, she was not that educated but she was ahead of her time… She didn’t give us everything that we wanted but she gave us everything that we needed, and she always insisted that we must go to school and inspire ourselves with skills so that nobody can take us for granted."

"When I was little I would strum an empty tin and blow into a broomstick pretending it was a microphone. I sang in church choirs, I loved singing. I am blessed that I have achieved my destiny, and have been able to accomplish what my father could not."

"People say 'la musique africaine', but I say 'les musiques africaines'. They refuse to recognize that Africa is a continent with a huge number of different cultures and languages and music. That's always been the difficulty of my career. People expect all Africans to have the same sound more or less, as if you can lump them all together."

"It’s just that I love to sing. I love to bring Africa to the world. The beauty of Africa, not the music that people are very content about seeing and talking about."

"We Africans have to be able to deal with our problems. Help from outside is alright, but we have to learn to be responsible for our own attitudes."

"Benin has little tradition of harmony in the south where I come from. The north has a lot more, but the south has more rhythms, which are absolutely fantastic and people don't know them. There's one village specifically dedicated to the drum. When you get there you can go and choose your tree, cut it down and make your percussion from it. The challenge for me is adding the harmonies that the rhythms give."

"Your brain is your greatest weapon. Connect it to your heart, and you can go anywhere."

"I never use someone just because they are great musicians. I work with people who have the same kind of feeling towards the music that I do, and the subject that I’m speaking of at that time."

"Everyone wins when children – and especially girls – have access to education. An educated girl is likely to increase her personal earning potential and prepare herself for a productive and fulfilling life, as well as reduce poverty in the whole community. Investing in girls’ education also helps delay early marriage and parenthood. Our booming economies in Africa need more female engineers, teachers and doctors to prosper and sustain growth."

"I come from this diversity and richness that's Benin, where there are fifty different languages. I speak four of them. I never know in advance which language will come when I start to write.The song leads me to the language."

"In song Here I Come, Here I Come (album) (1984-1985)."